October 31, 2005

What does it mean? A quick look at an Italian-to-English translation site shows it means "breath," and that there is a common expression "alito cattivo," which means "bad breath." I emailed my Italian informant for more info, and he's been away from Italy long enough that he wasn't sure if Italians say "alito" outside of the expression "alito cattivo" (because there is another Italian word for "breath," "sospiro"). So he called his daughters in Rome. He emails:

To the question: what do you think when I say alito? One said: "alito di vento" (breath of wind, forgot about that expression!) and alito of a person (but not negative), the other said: "bad breath" (alitosi). Small sample.

So there you have it -- in case you want to use imagery in discussing Samuel Alito. A breath of fresh air? Bad breath? It's your metaphor!